


Having a Ball

by gr8escap



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: Bucky Barnes Bingo 2019, Bucky Barnes adopts a dog, Gen, I remain FABULOUS at naming animals and fics, animal adoption, the dog is named Sebastian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:41:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22059502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gr8escap/pseuds/gr8escap
Summary: Bucky Barnes Bingo square 2, Adopting a pet.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 14
Collections: Bucky Barnes Bingo 2019





	Having a Ball

Bucky hated being alone. He’d been alone for too many years after historically being a relatively social guy. He also hated putting himself out there, it was different now, and dangerous — no that was the conditioning. It was no more dangerous than taking a shower, yet taking a shower was the cause of more than two thirds of emergency visits. A good statistic to know as an assassin.

He wasn’t that any more. He turned off the television, the noise wasn’t helping his loneliness or his anxiety — that was a thing now too. It was making it worse. Bucky picked up his phone, a smart phone given to him as a gift by Shuri before leaving Wakanda.

It had been clear he couldn’t stay forever, but the time they did allow him was the best thing ever. He had his goats, the children, and the farm work to keep him out of his head. Nights waking to the gentle sounds of the kids (goats not children) had been much easier to bear than the ones he’d spent waking in terror of a noise in the city in Bucharest or worse, the cold, dead silence.

Thumbing through search results for animal rescues nearby, Bucky saw the endearing frosted face of a dog. Brown or black? Couldn’t quite tell from the lighting. Bucky clicked through to the identifiers for the animal. Rescued from a dubious background, a rough living but loving animal sitting in the shelter for months due to age and aforementioned dubious background.

He clicked the underlined phone number .

He expected voice mail, that’s what you got when you called people these days, that or an automated voice. It surprised him when a very human voice answered in a friendly tone.

He was surprised enough to flounder before engaging in his side of the conversation.

“Yes, I — was calling about Sebastian, ID number 17310B5491. Is he still available?”

“He is. We were just about to head out for a walk, would you have time to meet him this morning?”

He had nothing else planned. Nobody had called him in for any kind of emergency, Steve was off teaching art at the local boys’ club, and Sam was enjoying some time with his family after a particularly rough mission the week before. Tasha — they hadn’t found a way to get her back yet. Bucky was going to call Scott later, but this morning?

“I can meet you.” He took down the address of the dog park and headed out. His eagerness surprised him. He stepped out onto the stoop, threw back his shoulders, and cocked his head toward the sun, taking a deep breath. This might be just the thing he needed.

He’d only had to stoop to the dog’s level to know he was in love. The animal was eager and joyful. His tail moved non-stop and he didn’t falter for having only three legs. “What happened to him?” Bucky looked up at the foster.

“You noticed,” the guy laughed. “We had to make a decision. He’d had a badly damaged leg, it was causing him a lot of pain and the site from the repair that had been done before kept getting infected. They recommended amputation and from what I can tell, it’s done wonders for his mood. I guess the rescue never got around to updating his profile. That’s not a deal-breaker, is it?”

Bucky held out his prosthetic hand with a wobbly smile, petting the dog’s floppy ears with both hands. “It’s not a deal-breaker and I don’t think this was a fluke, finding him. So, how do we do this?”

“Let’s take a walk, see how you feel taking the lead, so to speak. If you’d like, I can hang back here and let you two get acquainted.”

“I’d like that, if that’s really okay?” Why did he ask, when the man had  just offered exactly that? “Never mind, yes, I would like to take him around the park and see if he likes me for me.”

Walking around the park, Bucky started talking to the dog. He’d used to talk to the goats too. Cheap therapy, he teased. “So, Sebastian? Do you think you could handle a 70/30 split of a very chaotic yet quiet home? I try to keep the chaos to a minimum, but somehow I ended up partnered with Captain America.  Again . No worries, you don’t have to do any evil thwarting. Just hang out around the apartment. Be a pal. Easy stuff. In return, you’ll get food, a pretty amazing pal of your own, and maybe even toys and treats?”

Each time Bucky talked to him, the dog cocked his head. He amused himself with the thought that he might have a good listener here. He took the dog into the off-leash area and picked up a ball from a bin nearby that had a sign posted stating, “Please enjoy. In memory of Bruiser.” He laughed when the dog stood up on his hind legs before sitting proudly, eyes wide and tongue lolling out one side of his mouth. The tail started thumping the ground, sending up puffs of dirt. “You want this ball, huh?”

Bucky juggled the ball and watched those big brown eyes follow the small green fuzzy ball back and forth. He gave an easy toss and the dog sprinted after it. There was a little wobble or stumble when he lunged for the ball, but the dog didn’t hit the ground, instead whirled around and rushed back to Bucky, fuzzy ball clenched in his jaws, tongue still lolling to the side. A goofy looking doofus sat in front of him and Bucky felt a part of the walls around his heart crumble away. He took the damp ball and threw it a little harder, watching the scramble with the foreign feeling of joy surging through his cardiovascular and nervous system. It warmed him from the inside and gave him gooseflesh up and down his arms at the same time.

He tossed the ball at varying speeds and watched with laughter as the dog judged (and sometimes misjudged) the ball’s trajectory by Bucky’s swing. They played until the man who was fostering Sebastian came up to the fence with a smile on his face and his arms folded across his chest.

“Looks like you two are having a ball.”

“Several, actually,” Bucky replied with a grin.

It took a short walk to a coffee shop to talk about the dog’s habits and likes, a coffee and treats for Sebastian later, and the application was filled out online. Before Bucky knew it, he was waving goodbye to the foster with one hand and holding  his dog’s leash with the other.

  



End file.
